Signal switch



May 1, 1951 E. P. PooRE ET AL SIGNAL SWITCH 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed May 23, 1946 FIG-I WLYNNLNNYNN INVENTORS EDWARD F. POORE ROBERT P. KLOTZ JOHN C. BARRY ATTORNEYS May l, 1951 E. P. PooRE ET AL SIGNAL SWITCH Filed May 23, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG-4 FIG-IO FIG-9 lNvELNToRs EDWARD P. RooREI ROBERT R. KLoTz A JOHN c. BARRY M7, Ma@ @/yqw ATTORNEYS Patented May 1, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SIGNAL SWITCH Edward P. Poore and. Robert P. Klotz,

Sandusky, Ohio 1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to improvements in a signal device of the type adapted to translate a plurality of initiating indicia into a plurality of corresponding but different exhibited signals.

An object of the present invention is to provide a signal device as exemplied by the flashing of continental code signals for various letters of the alphabet consequent to the pushing of buttons r the like bearing indicia of the letters of the alphabet.

Another object -of the present invention `is to provide novel means for carrying out the above described functions by the use of very simple apparatus which does not necessitate large numbers of wires as in other devices known to us.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and specification, and the essential features thereof will be set forth in the appended claim.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a general elevational view of the entire apparatus;r

Fig. 2' is an enlarged fragmental sectional view taken along the line 2 2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a fragmental sectional view taken along the line 3*--3 of Fig. 2;

t Fig. 4 is an enlarged top plan view taken at the right-hand end o'f the right-hand piece of equipment of Fig. l, and with the cover removed to more clearly show the parts;

Figs. 5 and 6 are sectional views taken along similarly numbered lines of Fig. 4;

Fig. '7 is a view similar to Fig. 4 but showing a modied form of construction;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken along the l-ine 8--8 of Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a diagrammatical view showing the wiring of either form of our device; while Fig. 10 is a view similar to the left-hand pornon of Fig. 1 but showing a modined arrangement for displaying the signals.

Our device is applicable for use as a toy, for actual use in signaling, or for use in instruction ln learning the signal code. Other uses of our invention will be referred to at the end hereof.

In the device of Figs. l to 6, a battery case II houses batteries for operating the device, or other sources of electricity may be used, as will later appear. Mounted on the top of the battery case isja tower I2 carrying signal lights numbered I3 to I9 inclusive. In front of the lights is a housing 20 which may be translucent or transparent and divided in sections for the separate lights, if necessary or desirable.

For initiating the signals, we provide a case 2I upon which appear a series of buttons 22 for initiating the signals and carrying a series of indicia 23, one for each button. The relatively small number of connecting Wires necessary between the box Il and the case 2| are housed in the electric cables 24 and 25 which connect the two parts of the device. Obviously, these cables may be of any length required, as the signal may be produced at any distance desired from the housing 2| where the signal is initiated.

Our device will be described for the purpose of flashing the continental code upon the pressing of the buttons 22, although other uses of our invention will occur to those skilled in this art. For this purpose, the lights I3, I5, I1 and I9 are arranged to represent dots in the code, and for this purpose, We have utilized red lamps. The lights I4, I5 and I8 are utilized to represent dashes in the code, and for this purpose, we have 'used white lights, although another manner of dilerentiating the dots and dashes will be described later. Referring to Fig. 2, it Will be noted that the box II and the tower I2 are of insulating material so as to electrically insulate the Working parts. On one face of the tower I2 is mounted a plate 26 of electrically conductive material, and the base of each of the lights I3 to I9 inclusive is screwed into a suitable opening in the plate 26, as clearly indicated in Fig. 2. The other electrical connection for operating the lamp Kis exposed at the base of the lamp thimble, such as those indicated at I8a and ISa of Fig. 2. For each lamp, a spring finger 21 is provided having one end engaging the lamp contact, such as I8@ or I9a, and having the other end secured to the insulating material of the tower as by a screw 28. A separate electrical connection for each lamp is provided, as indicated at 29 on Fig. 2. Only three of these wires are shown for the sake of clearness, although, obviously, seven are provided. Each wire 29 is secured beneath one of the screws 28 to complete the electrical connection to the lamp. The wires 29 pass downwardly through an opening 30 in the box II and are then led to one of the cables 24 or 25. Obviously, the number of these cables provided is a matter of choice, but in the present instance, having eight `Wires to connect, we have used two cables, each housing having four wires. It is immaterial which wires are in the various cables, so long as they 'are properly connected-'at the terminal ends ofthe Wires.

The electrical means for operating the illustrate-d form of our device comprises .one or `more batteries 3l in the box II. In the present instance, we have utilized four such batteries having one terminal connected with a at spring conductor bar 32 in the bottom of the box, and another terminal connected to a similar conductor bar 33 at the top of the box. These bars connect the batteries in parallel. A jumper wire 34 connects the conductor bar 33 electrically with the plate 2S. 'A Wire 35 connects the conductor bar 32 with a trunk bus 1car in the housing 2 I, as will presently appear.

The equipment in housing 2l will be most clearly understood from Figs. Il, 5 and 6. This housing is preferably of electrically insulatingmaterial so that all of the parts will be properly insulated from each other. Extending lengthwise or" the housing along the inside face of the bottom thereof, we provide eight bus bars including a trunk bus bar 36, and light-controlling bus bars 3l to i3 inclusive. The wire 35 is connected to the trunk bus bar 35. The wires 29 are connected for the lamps indicated respectively, as follows: I3 to 3l, I to 33, I5 to 39, le to Lit, Il to 4I, I8 to 42, and I9 to G3.

Where the alphabet from A to Z is to be flashed on' the signal lamps,.we provide 26 control bars marked lill, and each of these bars is operated by a control button 22 located centrally thereof. Each bar M lies just beneath the cover 2id of the housing 2l with its opposite ends resting on helical springs 'i5 which urge each bar @il upwardly or away from the bus bars. rllhe buttons v22 extend through suitable openings in the top 2Ia of the housing. The indicia 23 are located adjacent their corresponding buttons on the top cover.

Means is provided on each bar le to ash the proper arrangement of lights I3 to lil inclusive when the bar 134 representing any letter of the alphabet is depressed. For this purpose,.a pluW rality of spring fingers @t `are snapped onto the bars lili, preferably in grooves lilla located' in the proper position along each bar corresponding to locations just above the bus bars. These spring ngers 45 are located differently on each of the bars sill, and in correspondence with the code arrangement. For instance, as best seen in Fig. 4, the bar 411x corresponds to the letter X of the inn dicia 23. This letter in the continental code is represented by the signal dash-dot-dot-dash. It will be noted that there is a spring finger 36d on the bar Mx which overlies the trunk bus bar 35. This is true in the case of each of the letters. In addition, on the bar dem there are lingers 4l, 33 4Q and 5t which respectively overlie the bus bars '38, 3S, 4| and G2. These'bars serve to energize lamps I4, I5, Il and I8, respectively, through the `circuits as shown diagrammaticallyv in Fig. 9. From the battery 3|, the current flows through line 35 to` the trunk bus bar 36, then (when bar @liz is depressed) through contact linger itc and bar Ll-t through the contacts lil, 118, i9 and 5), in parallel, respectively, to the bus bars 38, 39, @I and 52, and through the respective wiring connections to lamps It, Iii, Il and I8, respectively, andthrough these lamps to the plate 2li, and through line 34 back to the battery.

In. similar manner, the contact fingers on bar sin] (Fig. 4) are arranged to engage bus bars 38, 313,135 and d2,'so"as to produce the signal dash- -.dot-dash-dash which corresponds to the letter Y in .the-saidY code. In like manner, the contact lingers on bar ille-are set to produce a signal dash- -dash-dot-dot corresponding to the letter Z. It

will' now be clearly understood how the entire tion of different colored lights into the V d otllasll code, as is true in the device ofulig.y s

alphabet may be produced on the twenty-six bars carrying the general number it and corresponding to the indicia printed at 23. The operator has merely to press the selected button 22 and the corresponding signal will be flashed on the lights in the tower I2.

A modication of the above device is shown in Figs. 'l and 8. rI'his modification consists solely in the arrangement of the bars l carrying out the functions of the bars fill of the rst described in-odication. All of the rest of the device .is similar to that first described, and similar parts have been given similar reference characters. Each of the bars Mi is of electrically conductive material, such as spring brass, and extends entirely across the Width of the housing 2i, all of the bars being pivoted on a common shaft 5i which extends along one side of the housing 2|. parallel to the bus bars 3&3 to 43 inclusive. A spring finger 52 is punched out of the material of the bar liii' in the case of each of the barsgto extend down into contact with bus bar lit. "This acts not only as a conductor of electricity similar to the fingers 45a rst described, but additionally suppliesthe spring action for vraising bars di out of contact with the bus bars when the button 221,! is released. It will be understood that these buttons 22 extend through the cover of housing 2l and are provided with indicia such as that illus-` trated at 23 in Fig. I. Each bar fill' is specially designed to produce a particular letter. For vinstance, the left-hand bar lili shown in Fig. 8, corresponds in function to the bar illy shown in Fig. 4. The fingers 5S are punched out of the mate rial of the bar Alli so as to provide contacty with bus bars 3B, 59, llilrand s2, so as to light the lights I, I5, I5 and I3, producing the signal dash-dotdash-dash representing the letter Y of the code alphabet. In a similar manner, the right-hand bar ed shown in Fig. 7, is set to produce the signal for the letter Z and each of the other bars, oi' which twenty-six may be provided, produces one of the letter.: of the alphabet, as described in connection with the first modification. lThe form of Figs. 7 and 8 produces the sameresult as the rst described form, but is cheaper to construct.

In Fig. 10, we have shownl a further modification which has to do only with the tower I2 which is a substitute for the tower I2 shown in Fig. l. The rest of the apparatus is exactly like that first described and it will be understood that the tower I2 carries lights similar to I3 to I9 inclusive, back of opaque shields 513 and 55, In this case, all of the lights in tower I2 may be of one color. Each of these shields has a central opening, those in the shields 54 as shown at 54a being in the form of a small dot, While thoseat I55a in the shields 55 are in the form of an elongated slotted opening producing a visual dash. This tower, when connected with the rst described system, will produce signals on the various lamps I3 to IS inclusive, as they are selected bypressing the different buttons 22. The only diierence here is that instead of producing red and white signals indicating dots and dashes, as describedin the first modification, the deviceof Fig.-l0 will actually show visual dots and dashes corresponding to the sounds when the code is produced audibly. VV e rind Vthat this modification of- Fig. 10 is better for instruction, as the visual signal gives Athe same impression to the student as the audible telegraph signal, and does not require the mental `transla- 'We have described our-inventionasjitili flash an alphabet code, but it will be understood by those skilled in this art that the structure shown might be used to produce other sets of signals not requiring any but the simplest wiring, and not requiring the operator to actually know the code. Instead, all that the operator need do is to press the buttons corresponding to the desired indicia and a signal corresponding to those indicia will be produced at the signal tower.

What we claim is:

In combination, a housing, a plurality of parallel bus bars therein, a plurality of parallel signal bars adjacent and at right angles to said bus bars, spring means at opposite ends of said signal bars and supporting each of them for limited movement toward and away from said bus bars, contact lingers of spring material removably mounted on said signal bars adjacent said bus bars, and each of said Contact ngers having a portion adapted to embrace one of said signal bars and having another resilient portion extending away from said signal bar, and adapted to engage one of said bus bars, whereby said contact fingers may be positioned as desired on said signal bars.

EDWARD P. POORE. ROBERT P. KLOTZ.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 278,494 Breckenridge May 29, 1883 542,928 Crandall July 10, 1895 1,229,463 Hubbell June 12, 1917 1,967,887 Johnston July 24, 1934 2,146,575 Haselton et al Feb. 7, 1939 2,154,478 Smith Apr. 18, 1939 2,376,278 Scheld et al May 15, 1945 

